Apprenticeship Test: The Joust
Before dawn Before dawn, Mistress Twonky woke Daisy. She asked her to gather supplies from the cellar: * A sack of flour. * Two sacks of spuds. * Two big pumpkins. * A bushels of barley. * Two punnets of millet. * One nutmeg. * Eight strings of garlic. Daisy woke Lucky, Kim and (later) Wiggan to help her. The cellars turned out to be a huge warren of tunnels under the main castle. The two rooms close to the main entrance are the kitchen stores. All sorts of supplies were stacked around these huge rooms. Around the edges of the room, they can see that old weapons have been pushed to one side to make space for stores. In the store-room, Arnold the pig found a cat with a litter of kittens. A hopeless task As they were taking the stores upstairs, they heard a quiet sobbing from one of the rooms further down the corridor. It was Nicole, the Master of Arms' daughter. She was sitting in the armory, surrounded by feathers and arrow shafts. She tearfully explained that her father had commanded her to fletch all of these arrows before she could leave the room. Wiggan, Lucky and Kim offered to help and to keep her company. She was afraid that her father would find out and would be angry, but she was happy for the company. Later, both Wiggan and Lucky did come back and help. Exploring further Further into this area, they found lots of other interesting spaces, including: * The home of the Master Jeweler and his wife, who showed them some star stones that he was fashioning into a necklace for the Master of Revels. * A furniture store. The bed here seemed to have been slept in recently. * A store of spare saddlery, quietly moldering away. * A whole room of linen, tidily folded. * A room full of stuffed and mounted animal heads. * A set of iron-clad doors, firmly locked. * Lots of little side passages, which mostly ended abruptly. At the end of the constructed corridor, they find a natural tunnel leading into the darkness. Beside the doorway, there are polished areas with old chalk-marks on them. On the floor are old bits of chalk. At one stage, Rip Claw runs down into the the tunnel. A few moments later, he comes running out, howling and clearly terrified. When they ventured down into the tunnel, a voice spoke out from the shadows: "I am the Rat Lord and this is my domain." They ran. Presentation of Colours and Mass At breakfast, an older boy, Robin, asked Kim if she would like to come to Church with him. He was deferential and quite attractive, if a little 'focused' on the whole Christian thing. When she asked, he admitted that Father Michael was hoping that Kim would be there. After breakfast, the knights competing in the joust presented their colours to Lord and Lady Fang. The courtyard was a crowd of pageantry as knights presented their helms, shields and tabards. As her husband was not available, Lady Fang reviewed the competitors from her balcony. While this was going on, Kim attracted the attention of an attractive young knight. He asked to carry her favour in the joust. After the presentation of colours, Father Michael said mass for the Christian knights who were competing in the joust. The hymns, the incense, the chanting, the devout congregation were all new to Kim. Father Michael gave a stirring sermon about the virtues of a warrior. :“He must be courageous, because he faces the unknown. He must be powerful, to overcome all adversities. And he must be pure, so that when he completes his quest, he will be worthy of the prize.” Although the words of the sermon were for the assembled knights, he delivered the whole sermon directly to Kim. She felt blessed for the rest of the day. Fox's challenge While Kim was at mass, Wiggan, Lucky and Daisy were approached by a gang of older apprentices. Fox, apprentice to the Castilian, demanded that Wiggan swear not to accept any offer from the Castilian. He knew that Wiggan would probably also be offered a place by the Stable Master and thought that Wiggan should accept that. When Wiggan refused to swear, Fox challenged Wiggan and his friends to meet in the Grand Melee. Fox said he would force Wiggan to swear. Wiggan just wanted to show Fox that he wouldn't be forced to do anything by anyone. The rest of the day was spent finding armour and weapons for the Grand Melee. Back down in the armory, Nicole helped them to find some chain-mail, swords and spears. She explained a bit about how the Grand Melee worked, and helped them to practice until they needed to go to the fight. Grand Melee The Grand Melee was a rough and tumble affair. In the middle, the Master Smith and the Weapon Smith battled it out with sledgehammer and great axe. Everybody gave them a wide berth. The rest of the crowd seemed intent on settling personal scores. Before the fight, Wiggan asked Gwynelle for her favour, which she was glad to give him. She made it clear that Fox thought that he should be her boyfriend, which made Wiggan a little crazy, just thinking about it. Throughout the melee, he kept shouting 'You'll never have her' at Fox. Fox was there, accompanied by Weasel, his friend, flunky and right-hand man. Wiggan had Lucky to support him, although Lucky was a somewhat reluctant participant. The fight was long and drawn out, with both sides giving good blows to the other. Lucky proved his mettle by defeating Weasel. In the end, Fox managed to knock Wiggan out. Lucky decided that there was nothing more that he could do, and so left Fox shaking the unconscious Wiggan, demanding that he "swear, damn you, swear"! After the fight, Daisy managed to patch up Wiggan's numerous cuts and bruises, though he still had a loose tooth, She even patched up Rip Claw's eye. Apprentices are chosen That night, at the feast, the Castilian asked for all the Masters seeking apprentices to declare if there are any in the room that the judge fit to join them. Each Master stood in turn and asked their chosen apprentice to come and join them. * Mistress Twonky asked Daisy to join her in the kitchen. * Master Rassendil asked Wiggan to join him in the stables. * Master Nouise asked Lucky to join him on the hunt. * Mistress Prudence asked Kim to join her at the weaving loom. At that point, Lady Fang commented on how pretty Kim was. * The Weapon Smith asked Gareth to join him in the forge. Lady Fang pointed out that she has lost a good man (the Master Smith) that day, and that this new apprentice had best be worth it. Other Masters selected their apprentices as well. Farewell to the Journeymen Directly after the new apprentices had been chosen, Lady Fang announced that the final year apprentices had been judged worthy to become journeymen. The Castilian called on the new journeymen to immediately leave the castle, not to return for employment there until they had mastered their craft. The new journeymen took up their traveling bundles, and made a procession out of the main gate of the castle. Lady Fang leaves the feast Upon returning to the great hall, everybody saw that there was a golden bowl on Lady Fang's table. She gave a cry of delight upon seeing it, plucked something (Daisy saw that it was a sprig of oak leaves) from the bowl and then sipped some of the contents. She set it down and skipped out of the room, obviously delighted by this strange gift. While everybody else enjoyed their feast - dancing, drinking, singing and playing long into the night - Wiggan started planning his revenge. Category:Session records